No study has yet pitted cold turkey against Chantix. In the only head-to-head long-term study pitting NRT against Chantix, when analyzing the percentage of participants who were not smoking at two long-term study points, Pfizer's researchers were forced to report that there "were no significant differences" between Chantix and nicotine patch quitters at either 24 weeks (varenicline 38.6% vs. patch 34.1%) or one year (varenicline 34.8% vs. patch 31.4%). The obvious question becomes, why assume Chantix's long list of serious use risks in exchange for little or no benefit?

Chantix has now been on the market for 7 years with Pfizer boasting millions of users. There's just one problem. A July 2013 Gallup Poll found that only 2 percent of successful ex-smokers credit any prescription quitting product for their success. Keep in mind that the Poll's 2 percent figure includes all Zyban quitters since 1997 and all successful prescription nicotine inhaler and nicotine nasal spray quitters ever.

2. Without support Chantix is probably worthless.

No Pfizer advertisement to date alerts smokers to the fact that Chantix drug approval studies set records for the number of counseling and support sessions received by study participants (up to 26). It's why Pfizer is compelled to mention the word "support" in all New Year's Chantix ads. Counseling and support have proven their ability to dramatically enhance quitting rates.

The real mystery is why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Chantix use without knowing its worth as a stand-alone quitting aid. Six million Americans filled 12 million Chantix prescriptions since its release in May 2006. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there were 36.3 million daily smokers in 2006 and 36.7 million daily smokers in 2008, when the adult smoking rate actually increased from 20% to 21% over the prior year. If Chantix works then where is the proof?

3. Placebo-controlled Chantix studies were not science-based.

As a smoker, if participating in a clinical trial and randomly assigned to the study's Chantix group, would you have been able to tell if the dopamine "aaah" sensation that you had come to expect within 10 seconds of a puff was missing, because Chantix was now blocking nicotine from stimulating your dopamine pathways? If randomly assigned to the placebo group, if you had a lengthy quitting history, would you have been able to recognize the onset of full-blown withdrawal? Hoping for free study medication that diminished withdrawal anxieties, would realizing that you'd instead been given placebo sugar pills have left you frustrated? Chantix studies were not blind as claimed. Junk science, they reflect fulfilled and frustrated expectations, not product worth. Use of placebo controls in drug addiction studies is license to steal. A new petition drive asks U.S. health officials to demand honest quitting studies.

Drug addiction is about living a lie. It's about dopamine reward pathway stimulation, desensitization and receptor count up-regulation leaving the addict totally convinced that nicotine use defines who they are, gives them their edge, helps them cope and that life without smoked nicotine would be horrible. Pfizer knows this and is now playing upon it.

Today full-page ads in papers across the nation scream "I honestly loved smoking" and "with Chantix you can smoke during the first week of treatment." It isn't that we loved smoking but that we didn't like what happened when we didn't smoke. If allowed, for every high there would have been a corresponding low. Like other addicts, our brain had become rewired for an external chemical. Unlike other addicts, the sensation accompanying our dopamine high (alert stimulation) permitted us to function almost normally and feel superior to those addicted to illegal drugs.

So long as no nicotine enters your bloodstream success is guaranteed. What Pfizer will never teach smokers is that cold turkey accounts for far more long-term success stories each year than all other quitting methods combined. Cold turkey does not mean quitting without counseling or support. It means ending nicotine use abruptly, without use of replacement nicotine or imitation substitutes. The body becomes nicotine-free and withdrawal peaks in intensity within 72 hours of ending all nicotine use. The brain works overtime to re-sensitize dopamine pathway receptors and down-regulate receptor counts. But just one puff of nicotine and up to 50% of nicotinic-type receptors will become occupied by nicotine. Although you make think you have gotten away with smoking, relapse is all but assured, as the brain will soon be begging for more.

Knowledge is Power

Your mind's priorities teacher has been taken hostage. I wish you could spend a few minutes savoring the calm, quiet and comfort inside the long-term ex-smoker's mind. It's why ex-smokers seem so obnoxious. Quitting can be our greatest awakening ever. They simply can't believe how wrong they were.

What sense does it make to fear arriving at a day where we go entire days without once wanting to smoke nicotine? Embrace coming home, don't fear it. It's a wonderful thing not bad. Although almost impossible to believe right now, everything we did as smokers can be done as well as or better as us. Recovery is the process of reclaiming life, one activity, person, place and emotion at a time.

Here's a few key tips for New Year's quitters. Do not skip any meals. If unable to concentrate or experiencing mind fog you've likely skipped a meal. If your diet permits, drink extra natural fruit juices but only for the first 3 days (cranberry is excellent). It will aid in helping stabilize blood sugar levels and speed nicotine's elimination from the bloodstream.

Be aware that up to 50% of all smoking relapses are associated with alcohol use. Allow yourself to move beyond peak withdrawal and begin sensing improvement before drinking alcohol. If unable to go three days without drinking you may be facing alcohol dependency issues too. If so, research suggests that arresting both chemical dependencies at the same time likely offers the best odds of success.

Two recent studies found that unplanned quitting attempts are twice as likely to succeed. Don't work yourself into a frenzy. Simply jump in the pool. Also, a just released study suggests that keeping cigarettes or other nicotine products after quitting may actually increase anxieties and risk of relapse. Although cessation time distortion can make a less than 3 minute crave episode feel like 3 hours, getting rid of all nicotine products builds in relapse delay that just might save your recovery and life!

Knowledge and understanding are key to a lasting recovery. Why quit afraid, alone and in darkness? Why not turn on the lights? Once ready, the next few minutes will be all that matter and each will be do-able. Baby steps! No nicotine just one hour, challenge and day a time. Yes you can!

WhyQuit's basic "how to quit smoking" video

Have you read our free quitting books?

Read both and experience the magic of becoming vastly more dependency
recovery savvy than nicotine's influence upon your brain! Use knowledge and understanding to destroy fear driven anxieties!

Learn More About Smart Turkey Quitting

WhyQuit.com - WhyQuit is the Internet's oldest forum devoted to the art, science and psychology of cold turkey quitting, the stop smoking method used by the vast majority of all successful long-term ex-smokers. Left to right, WhyQuit is organized under three headings: (1) Motivation, (2) Education and (3) Support.

"Never Take Another Puff" - Imagine a free 149 page stop smoking ebook that's registered more than 4 million downloads and was written by a man who has devoted 40 years, full-time to helping smokers quit. Never Take Another Puff (NTAP) was authored by Joel Spitzer, the Internet's leading authority on how to stop smoking cold turkey. It is an insightful collection of almost 100 articles on every cessation topic imaginable.

"Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home" - Written by John R. Polito, a former 30-year heavy smoker and WhyQuit's 1999 founder, Freedom from Nicotine (FFN) is a free nicotine dependency recovery book that documents the science underlying nicotine dependency and successful cessation. Whether hooked on cigarettes, e-cigarettes (e-cigs), bidis, kreteks, a pipe, hookah or cigars, on dip, chew, snuff or snus, or on the nicotine gum, lozenge, spray, inhaler or patch, FFN provides a comprehensive yet easy to follow road-map to freedom from nicotine.

Turkeyville - Visit Turkeyville, Facebook's most popular quit smoking support group. The group's primary focus is the first few days and helping new quitters get started. Yes you can!

Joel's Library - Joel's Library is home to Joel Spitzer's "Daily Quitting Lesson Guide." The Guide walks new quitters through the first two weeks of smoking cessation, recommending daily videos to watch and articles to read. Joel's Library is also home to more than 100 original short stop smoking articles, to his free ebook Never Take Another Puff, and to his collection of more than 200 video stop smoking lessons.

Freedom - Looking for a deadly serious and highly focused education oriented support group? Home to Joel Spitzer, Freedom is the Internet's only 100% nicotine-free peer messageboard support forum. Explore Freedom's hundreds of thousands of archived member posts on how to quit smoking.